Sprint Review Time!
We only had about a week before our first spring review. But we made some progress! See pictures at the bottom. Here is a list of the sprint review topics we will be covering in class:
Learning Goals
Our learning goals for this short sprint were mostly to do research and collect information about our system. There isn’t a lot of information about SkyCam specifics, but there is a fair amount of research about cable suspended robots. We wanted to learn about the math! We also wanted to learn about hardware that is both within our budget as well as capable for the torque necessary for our system.
Integrated Results:
We have a ‘table-top’ sized model of our system using two stepper motors. The control for this system is very difficult, so we have been playing around with controlling it with a larger power supply and Arduino. On the software side, we set up a blog account on Medium to document our work. We also investigated using Pygame to create a simulation of our system, but this proved to be difficult and not a good use of time. We did take the time to work out some of the math and trigonometry involved in the calculations of the wire lengths with the camera moving.
Risks
This is an ambitious project. I think we are all aware of that yet still motivated to make a unique and cool project. The biggest risk for us is over-scoping what we think we can do in the relatively short time period. Also, there is a risk in building a fully functional table top model but having difficulty in scaling in up to the real, classroom sized one we are trying to achieve.
Decisions
We decided on using a GoPro for the camera that we mount instead of the professional and heavy Ronin gimble from the library. We considered using the Ronin because it has a powered three-axis control already. However, it is pretty large and bulky compared to a a GoPro, and if we were to hang it from cables, we would need a lot more torque out of our motors. Upon further research, we realized that nicer motors and controllers that would be capable of this feat are significantly out of our price range for this project.
Next Sprint Goal
- Have our ‘table-top’ model fully functional and controllable with full planar motion.
- Have all of the ‘long-term’ hardware scoped out and possibly purchased.
- Tune and configure electrical system.
- Have a running website with functionality and embedded blog.
- Continue to document and blog as we go!
Gallery:
